What an amazing hobby! I have been collecting data for DSOs since 2019 and over the holiday, I decided to revisit some old data stacks and re-do the post-process (I use PixInsight) to see if I have learned anything in the past two years. Image #1 is my original result on IC1396 from the data I collected in Dec 2019
Image #2 is the result from re-processing in Jan 2022 (same stack of the original Dec 2019 data)
Wow! I can't believe how much more signal was in my original data set. I have gone back and re-processed some of my best data on the ED80 over the last two years and every object looked better but this one probably had the largest signal-jump.
Equipment:
Orion Sirius EQ-G mount
Orion ED80 Refractor (600mm f7.5) with 0.85x field flattener
ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera (4144x2822 pixels)
ZWO ASIair computer
ZWO EAF focuser
ZWO Filter Wheel
Data Collection:
Dec 27 2019 in Upper Peninsulas of Michigan Bortle 2 (46.2371N 88.0068W)
Not auto-guided
Camera at -20C and 200gain
60x60sec frames
1.25" Astronomik L2 UVIR cut filter
Data Process:
Calibrated, Registered, Normalized and Integrated in AstroPixelProcessor (Darks, Bias)
Post-process in PixInsight
Update:
The more I looked at the second image, the more I felt I was too aggressive in some of the post-process. Below I present a third version that I think still brings out more signal in the key areas but doesn't do it at the expense of losing detail elsewhere.